L'autorisation de fouilles

Nul ne pouvait fouiller en Égypte à la recherche d'antiquités, pas même sur son propre terrain, sans une autorisation du ministre des Travaux publics, accordée sur la proposition du directeur général du Service des Antiquités après avis favorable du Comité d'Égyptologie (loi n° 14 de 1912 et arrêté n° 52, en vigueur au 1er janvier 1913). Toute antiquité du sol égyptien appartenait à l'État ; le fouilleur recevait une part de ce qu'il trouvait.

Bearer imprime l'autorisation sur trois feuillets : la décision qui nomme le fouilleur, le site et la saison ; les articles du règlement auxquels il s'engageait ; et le partage des trouvailles, chaque objet porté au Musée ou à lui. La page 1 reprend la forme des arrêtés du ministère, faute d'avoir lu une autorisation effectivement délivrée.

Bearer fabrique les papiers d'un investigateur pour L'Appel de Cthulhu et toute campagne de jeu de rôle des années 1920 ou 1930 : le passeport qu'un consul aurait rempli, avec les visas et tampons de frontière qu'une campagne y laisse, et les permis, certificats et bulletins de l'époque, à imprimer ou à partager.

Un exemple

Ouvrir cet exemple dans l'office

Ce que le règlement demandait au fouilleur

Ailleurs

La Palestine sous mandat avait son ordonnance sur les antiquités de 1920 : les antiquités appartenaient au pays, les permis allaient aux institutions scientifiques reconnues quelle que soit leur nationalité, après avis d'un conseil consultatif international, et « antiquité » désignait tout ce qui était antérieur à 1700. L'Irak avait sa loi sur les antiquités du 26 juin 1924, et Bearer imprime son permis de fouilles tel que le permis n° 1 fut tapé pour Ur : en anglais et en arabe côte à côte, accordé par le ministre des Communications et des Travaux par la voix du directeur des Antiquités, alors Gertrude Bell, et accepté au nom du British Museum et de l'université de Pennsylvanie selon l'article 9 de la loi. La Turquie accordait un permis par un décret du Conseil des ministres signé du président de la République : celui qui a été lu autorisait l'université de Cincinnati à fouiller Troie pendant deux ans à partir d'avril 1932. Sous le mandat français, le Haut-Commissaire à Beyrouth accordait les fouilles pour la Syrie et le Liban selon le règlement du 7 novembre 1933 (arrêté n° 166-LR) : à un corps savant seulement, pour six ans au plus, les trouvailles partagées en deux lots d'égale importance dont le Service choisissait l'un ; Bearer l'imprime dans la forme des arrêtés du Haut-Commissaire, faute d'avoir lu une autorisation accordée. Bearer imprime le décret turc tel que celui de Troie fut tapé, le bénéficiaire décrit en turc et le site muni de sa terminaison du locatif. Le Pérou autorisait les fouilles en vertu de la loi 6634 du 13 juin 1929 : une permission expresse du Gouvernement pour toute exploration ou excavation, accordée aux corporations scientifiques nationales sur rapport du Patronato Nacional de Arqueología, aux sociétés étrangères par convention diplomatique, et aux personnes qui la demandaient ; tout ce qu'on trouvait appartenait à l'État et ne quittait le pays qu'avec permission. Aucune autorisation péruvienne n'a été retrouvée : le papier que Bearer imprime pour le Pérou est une reconstitution, et le bureau le dit au-dessus du formulaire. Bearer n'imprime pas le permis palestinien : aucune licence n'a été trouvée.

La Chine. La loi du 2 juin 1930 sur la conservation des objets anciens, en vigueur à partir de juin 1931, rendait l'État propriétaire de tout ce que contenait le sol et ne laissait fouiller que les organismes savants dépendant du gouvernement central ou d'une province, sur une licence que les ministères de l'Éducation et de l'Intérieur délivraient ensemble après examen de la demande par la Commission centrale des antiquités ; fouiller sans licence était puni comme un vol (art. 8). Un organisme savant ou un spécialiste étranger ne pouvait qu'aider un tel organisme, avec l'accord de la Commission (art. 10), et la Commission envoyait un inspecteur sur chaque fouille (art. 11). La licence n° 1 fut délivrée le 9 avril 1935 à l'Institut d'histoire et de philologie de l'Academia Sinica pour Anyang. Avant la loi, la Commission avait déjà arrêté l'expédition d'Asie centrale de l'American Museum : en 1929 elle exigeait qu'elle soit à moitié chinoise, avec deux chefs, et que les originaux restent en Chine ; la saison fut perdue, 1930 fut la dernière, et la permission fut refusée en 1931. Aucune licence de l'époque n'a été retrouvée : le papier que Bearer imprime pour la Chine est une reconstitution, et le bureau le dit au-dessus du formulaire.

Le Kenya et l'Australie. L'ordonnance kényane de 1927 sur la conservation des monuments anciens, calquée sur la loi indienne de 1904, protégeait les monuments classés ; sa révision de 1934, écrite après les découvertes de Louis Leakey, y ajouta des permis de recherche et d'exportation et le contrôle des fouilles sur les sites protégés : dans le Kenya des années trente, on demandait l'accord de la colonie pour un site classé et pour tout ce qui quittait le pays. L'Australie-Occidentale n'eut aucune loi sur les sites aborigènes avant l'Aboriginal Heritage Act de 1972 : on ne connaît aucun permis de fouilles pour une expédition dans ses déserts entre les deux guerres.

Le Mexique. La loi publiée au Diario Oficial du 19 janvier 1934 rendait la Nation propriétaire de tout monument archéologique immeuble et de ce qu'on y trouvait, et exigeait une concession du ministère de l'Éducation publique pour tout travail tendant à en découvrir ou à l'explorer ; de plusieurs pièces identiques, le ministère pouvait donner au concessionnaire un exemplaire de chacune, et rien ne quittait le pays sans son accord. La Carnegie Institution fouillait Chichén Itzá depuis 1924 en vertu d'un contrat du 3 juillet 1923. Aucune concession n'a été retrouvée : le papier que Bearer imprime pour le Mexique est une reconstitution, et le bureau le dit au-dessus du formulaire.

Le même papier ailleurs

• Les autorisations de fouilles par pays

Encore à confirmer

• no authorisation actually granted has been found: page 1 is set in the form the ministry's own decrees of 1912 take (Le Ministre des Travaux Publics, Vu…, ARRÊTE, articles), and says what the law and decree no. 52 require an authorisation to say (the person, the site and its limits, the season). Ce qui trancherait: an Egyptian autorisation de fouilles of the twenties or thirties.
• the rules printed on page 2 are those of decree no. 52 of 1912; how far the terms granted after 1922 changed them (the division of finds after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb) has not been found. Ce qui trancherait: the conditions of an Egyptian concession granted after 1922.
• French alone: the law and the decree were published in French and in Arabic, and Bearer has no Arabic face. Ce qui trancherait: an Arabic face in the print shop and the Arabic text of the decree (Journal officiel, 19 Safar 1331).
• the page is set at A4. Ce qui trancherait: an Egyptian authorisation measured.
• the day and the place of issue are not on the permit read, so Bearer prints neither; the date of issue only chooses who signs. Ce qui trancherait: another Iraqi permit to excavate, dated.
• clause (c) speaks of "these mounds" (هذين التلين, two of them), as the permit read does: a permit for one site or for three has not been found. Ce qui trancherait: an Iraqi permit for one site or for more than two.
• the Arabic of clause 1 agrees the verb with البعثة (the expedition, feminine: مرخوصة), as on the permit read; a grantee named by a masculine noun would take مرخوص. Ce qui trancherait: an Iraqi permit granted to a person or to a masculine body.
• four years when no expiry is typed in: the permit read runs from 1924 to 31 March 1928; what the Antiquities Law itself allows has not been found. Ce qui trancherait: the Antiquities Law, 1924.
• the Arabic months other than March (اذار, on the permit read) are the Iraqi names, spelt as the permit spells its words, without hamza. Ce qui trancherait: an Iraqi paper of the period dated in those months.
• Gertrude Bell signs until her death on 12 July 1926, a date from secondary sources; after it the title is printed Director of Antiquities (مدير الآثار القديمة, masculine) and the name left to the pen, since her successors' own permits have not been found. Ce qui trancherait: a permit to excavate signed after July 1926.
• the Minister of Communications and Works is the minister of the permit read; the ministry's name in later years has not been found. Ce qui trancherait: a permit of the thirties.
• the Antiquities Law of 1936 replaced that of 1924; the permits granted under it have not been found, so the type runs on unchanged. Ce qui trancherait: a permit to excavate of 1936 or later.
• the sheet is set at A4. Ce qui trancherait: the permit measured.
• no authorisation actually granted has been found: page 1 is set in the form of the High Commissioner's own arrêtés (the preamble of No. 166-LR, the closing formula of No. 225 of 1934), and says what articles 58 to 60 require (the learned body, the director of the works, the site, the term). Ce qui trancherait: an arrêté of the High Commissioner granting an excavation, or a contrat de concession de fouilles.
• the contract of concession itself (article 59) is not printed: its words have not been found. Ce qui trancherait: a contrat de concession de fouilles of the thirties (Mari, Ras Shamra, Dura-Europos, Byblos).
• one year when no expiry is typed in; article 63 allows up to six. Ce qui trancherait: a granted authorisation.
• the High Commissioner who signs: D. de Martel is read on an arrêté of 1934; G. Puaux from 1939 is the plain record of his term, the change dated to the turn of the year. Ce qui trancherait: acts of the High Commissioner signed in January 1939.
• the type begins with the regulation of 7 November 1933; the regulation of 26 March 1926 (arrêté No. 207) it replaced has not been found. Ce qui trancherait: arrêté No. 207 of 1926.
• the sheet is set at A4. Ce qui trancherait: an authorisation measured.
• the whole paper: no licence of 1935-1939 has been found, neither its words nor its layout. Ce qui trancherait: a photograph of a 採取古物執照 (licence No. 1 is held, it seems, by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei).
• one year when no expiry is typed in. Ce qui trancherait: a licence read.
• the type begins with licence No. 1 of 9 April 1935, known from a secondary account. Ce qui trancherait: the licence itself, or the Commission's register.
• the decree read grants a second campaign at Troy; the words 'vaktiyle hafriyat icra kılınan mevkilerde' (at the places formerly excavated) are left out of the generic text. Ce qui trancherait: a kararname granting a first campaign.
• the work begins the month of the day typed as the start (the decree read: April 1932, decided in December 1931); Bearer starts it the month the term begins, the term running from the decree to its expiry. Ce qui trancherait: other kararname.
• the ministers' initials are those of December 1931; the cabinets of other years had other ministries. Ce qui trancherait: the kararname of other years.
• offered from 1 January 1929, when the Latin alphabet became compulsory in official writing; earlier permits were written in the Arabic script and are not printed. Ce qui trancherait: a permit of 1928 or earlier.
• the President of the Republic who signs is the one in office on the day: Gazi M. Kemal read, İsmet İnönü from 11 November 1938 plain record. Ce qui trancherait: a kararname of 1938-1939.
• the whole of page 1 and page 3. Ce qui trancherait: a supreme resolution of 1929-1939 granting an excavation (El Peruano, or the archive of an expedition: Wendell Bennett's at the American Museum of Natural History).
• the text of law 6634 is read in a modern transcription, not in El Peruano. Ce qui trancherait: the Diario Oficial El Peruano of June 1929.
• pages 1 and 3. Ce qui trancherait: a concession of the Secretaría de Educación Pública of 1934-1939 (the Carnegie Institution's archive for Chichén Itzá, or the INAH's).
• the type begins with the law of 1934; the law of 30 January 1930 it repealed, and the Carnegie Institution's contract of 3 July 1923 for Chichén Itzá, have not been found. Ce qui trancherait: the law of 1930, or the contract of 1923.

Sources

• Gouvernement égyptien, Ministère des Travaux Publics; printed in the Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte, vol. XII (1912), pp. 245-263, Loi n° 14 de 1912 sur les antiquités, and the arrêtés ministériels n° 50, 51 and 52 of 8 December 1912 (Réglement pour les fouilles), Law no. 14, art. 1: every antiquity on or in the soil of Egypt belongs to the public domain; art. 11: a finder keeps half; art. 12: nobody may dig for antiquities, even on his own land, without an authorisation of the Ministry of Public Works on the proposal of the Director General of the Service des Antiquités, which fixes the place and the period and grants the excavator a share of the finds; art. 14: no export without a special authorisation. Decree no. 52 (in force 1 January 1913): authorisations granted by the Minister after a favourable opinion of the Comité d'Égyptologie (art. 1), only to scholars on a mission or officially recommended, or to private persons with a reputed scholar to direct the work (art. 2), for one season, 15 November to 14 November (art. 3), never more than two sites at once (art. 4), applied for before 25 October (art. 5), P.E. 10 a day for the guarding of the site or P.E. 20 a day for a delegate of the Service travelling with the excavator (art. 7), sixty days' work at least (art. 8), the finds divided between the excavator and the Government under art. 11 of the law (art. 11), transport and export permits on request (art. 12), trenches filled and the ground put back at the end of the season before any share may leave (art. 13), a plan, a list and a report handed in (art. 14), renewal as of right to one who kept to his conditions (art. 16), suspension or withdrawal for breach (art. 17). (lu directement)
• Gertrude Bell, Honorary Director of Antiquities, for the Minister of Communications and Works; accepted by C. Leonard Woolley. Original in the British Museum; photograph published by the Penn Museum, Expedition magazine, 'Archaeology in the Digital Age', Antiquities Department of the Government of 'Iraq, Permit to Excavate No. 1: the joint Expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania at Tall al Muqaiyir (Ur) and Tall al 'Ubaid, valid until 31 March 1928, typed in English on the left and in Arabic on the right, line for line: the department and the permit's number; clause 1, the expedition permitted to excavate for antiquities at (a) and (b), two mounds, and (c) the area round them defined on a map attached; clause 2, valid until a date and subject to the Antiquities Law, 1924 and to any law or regulations the 'Iraq Government issues meanwhile; the Minister of Communications and Works (a revenue stamp over his line); the Honorary Director of Antiquities, signed in English and in Arabic; accepted on behalf of the two institutions in accordance with article 9 of the Antiquities Law, 1924. The Arabic writes its figures in Arabic-Indic digits and the month as اذار. (lu directement)
• Haut-Commissariat de la République française en Syrie et au Liban, Direction du Service des Antiquités; the edition printed at Beyrouth in 1935, with the arrêtés of 1934 and 1943 that amend it. Scan in the UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws (Lebanon), Arrêté No. 166-LR du 7 novembre 1933 portant règlement sur les antiquités en Syrie et au Liban (Bulletin officiel des Actes administratifs du Haut-Commissariat, 30 novembre 1933), the preamble (Le Haut-Commissaire de la République Française, Vu…, Sur la proposition du Directeur du Service des Antiquités, Arrête :); title III, Des fouilles, articles 56 to 72: the right to dig belongs to the States represented by the High Commissioner (56), only a learned body for scientific research (57), the request (58), a contract of concession of excavations (59, 60), no more than two authorisations to one applicant and six years at most, renewable (63), an agent of the Service may be delegated (64), every find handed to the State and entered in a register (65), the finds divided in two lots of equal importance, one chosen for the State (68), a photographic dossier and a report (69), the concessionaire's right to publish within three years (70), suspension or withdrawal (71), clandestine digging fined 25 to 500 L.S. (72). The arrêté No. 225 of 28 September 1934 ends 'Beyrouth, le 28 Septembre 1934 / Le Haut-Commissaire / Signé : D. de Martel.' and 'Le Secrétaire Général est chargé de l'exécution du présent arrêté.' (lu directement)
• National Government of the Republic of China; text on Chinese Wikisource from the Government Gazette (國民政府公報), 古物保存法 (Law on the Preservation of Ancient Objects), passed 24 May 1930, promulgated 2 June 1930, in force 15 June 1931; re-enacted 10 November 1935, art. 7: everything buried or brought up from the ground belongs to the State; art. 8: only academic bodies under the central or a provincial government may dig, on a licence (採掘執照) the Ministries of Education and of the Interior issue together after review by the Central Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities; digging without it is punished as theft; art. 10: a foreign learned body or specialist may take part only in helping such a body, with the Commission's prior approval; art. 11: the Commission sends an inspector; art. 12: the finds kept for study for a fixed period with the Commission's approval; art. 13: ancient objects circulate only within the country. (lu directement)
• 徐敏 (Xu Min), 中国文物报 (China Cultural Relics News), 5 January 2024, p. 8, 中国考古发掘执照制度的发展 (The development of China's excavation licence system), licence No. 1, 採取古物執照, issued on 9 April 1935 by the Ministries of the Interior and of Education to the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica for Yinxu (Anyang); it named the excavating body, the period, the place, the leader and the inspectors; applicants filed three copies of a form with the Central Commission and paid two yuan for the licence and two for the stamp. (source secondaire)
• Department of State, Washington, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1929 vol. II docs. 874-881 and 1930 vol. II docs. 648-649: the Roy Chapman Andrews expedition, May-June 1929: the Chinese society for the preservation of antiquities asks that the American Museum's expedition be half Chinese with two leaders and leave the originals in China; the Museum refuses and the 1929 season is lost; the 1928 collections are released; February 1930: the Foreign Minister says the antiquities law will decide; May 1930: 'everything had been settled' for the season of 1930, the last, permission being refused in 1931. (lu directement)
• CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, U.S. National Park Service, Winter 2007, Gazetting and Historic Preservation in Kenya, the Ancient Monuments Preservation Ordinance of 1927, modelled on the Indian act of 1904, the first of five Kenyan preservation laws; in 1934 it grew to 25 sections, the new ones answering Louis Leakey's discoveries: research and export permits, the ownership and treatment of objects, and control of excavations at protected sites. (source secondaire)
• Parliament of Western Australia; Western Australian legislation site, Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (Western Australia), Western Australia's first law protecting Aboriginal sites and objects, enacted in 1972. (lu directement)
• Congreso del Perú; text transcribed on arqueologia.deperu.com (the Diario Oficial El Peruano of June 1929 not found), Ley N° 6634 (Patronato Nacional de Arqueología), promulgada el 13 de junio de 1929, art. 1: the historical monuments before the Viceroyalty belong to the State; art. 3: so does everything they contain, even found on private land; art. 6: every exploration or excavation not expressly authorised by the Government is fined ten to a hundred Peruvian pounds; art. 7: the Government may grant the permit national scientific bodies ask for, on the report of the Patronato Nacional de Arqueología; art. 8: to foreign scientific societies by stipulations in a diplomatic convention; art. 9: to persons, national or foreign, who ask for it; art. 10: no export without the Government's permission; art. 13: the Patronato (the Minister of Instruction, the Rector of San Marcos, the Director of the National History Museum, the President of the Geographical Society of Lima…); art. 20: finds on private land put at the disposal of the Patronato. (source secondaire)
• Estados Unidos Mexicanos; Diario Oficial, Friday 19 January 1934, Tomo LXXXII No. 16, Secretaría de Educación Pública; transcription in UNESCO's Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws, Ley sobre protección y conservación de monumentos arqueológicos e históricos, poblaciones típicas y lugares de belleza natural, promulgated 27 December 1933, art. 3: archaeological monuments are all the remains of the aboriginal civilisations before the Conquest; art. 4: every immovable one belongs to the Nation, and the objects found in it; art. 6: the owner of the land cannot oppose an authorised exploration; art. 8: no one, national or foreign, may remove or restore an archaeological monument or take out what it holds; a concession granted by the Secretaría de Educación Pública is required for every work that tends to discover archaeological monuments, and for exploring those already found; of several identical pieces the Secretaría may give the concessionaire one of each; art. 23: the export of archaeological monuments is forbidden; art. 24: unless the Secretaría authorises it; art. 29: destroying or damaging them, three days to five years in prison and a fine of 100 to 5,000 pesos; art. 30: exporting them against the law is contraband. The law of 30 January 1930 is repealed (transitory art. 1). The decree closes 'Sufragio Efectivo. No Reelección.' (lu directement)
• H. C. Luke and E. Keith-Roach (eds.), published under the authority of the Government of Palestine, 1922, The Handbook of Palestine, part V, § 2: Department of Antiquities, the Department of Antiquities formed under the Civil Administration, the Archaeological Advisory Board of the archaeological bodies working in Palestine (British, French, American, Italian, Greek and Jewish) which deals in particular with permits to excavate, and the Antiquities Ordinance: the antiquities of Palestine belong to the country and its people, excavations by scientific bodies of recognised standard are facilitated irrespective of nationality, "antiquity" covers all monuments down to 1700 A.D. (lu directement)
• Colonial Office, London, 1928, Report by His Britannic Majesty's Government on the Administration of 'Iraq for the period 1920-1927, the list of the laws of 1924 gives the Antiquities Law, 1924, of 26 June 1924; the reports of the following years name the excavations licensed (Ur, Kish, Nineveh, Nuzi, Warka, Khorsabad) but do not print the law (lu directement)
• T.C. Başvekâlet, Muamelât Müdürlüğü; Başbakanlık Cumhuriyet Arşivi; photograph on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), Kararname of the Council of Ministers of the Turkish Republic, 12 December 1931, no. 12028: permit to excavate at Troy, on the proposal of the Ministry of Education, the Council of Ministers grants Professor W. T. Semple of the University of Cincinnati leave to excavate, in the name of his university, at the places of Troy formerly excavated, for two years from April 1932; signed by the President of the Republic, Gazi M. Kemal, and by the ministers Read line by line: 'T. C. / BAŞVEKÂLET / MUAMELÂT MÜDÜRLÜĞÜ / Şube: / Sayı: 12028', 'KARARNAME', the text typed ('Amerikanın Cincinati Darülfünunu profesörlerinden M. W. T. Semple, mensup olduğu darülfünun namına Trovada vaktiyle hafriyat icra kılınan mevkilerde 932 senesi nisanından itibaren iki sene müddetle hafriyat icrası için izin verilmesi; Maarif Vekâletinin 12/11/931 tarih ve 85925 numaralı tezkeresiyle yapılan teklifi üzerine İcra Vekilleri Heyetinin 12/12/931 tarihli içtimaında tasvip ve kabul olunmuştur.'), '12/12/931', 'REİSİCÜMHUR' over the President's signature, and the ministers' initials: Bş. V., Ad. V., M. M. V., Da. V., Ha. V., Ma. V., Mf. V., Na. V., İk. V., S. İ. M. V. (lu directement)

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